Comments Thread For: Mayweather: Criticize Me, Not Gervonta Davis, For His Opposition

[AdonisCreed]

FACTS! Can't argue that, and like Floyd said "Blame me, not the fighter!" Floyd has not done well with Tank Davis, nor Andrew Tabiti!

I forgot all about Tabiti you're right on that one lol

[Bronx2245]

Vasyl Lomachenko Vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux Is Boxing ****ery At Its Finest

December 8, 2017

Guillermo Rigondeaux, for his part, is a sphinx. Until now, his reward for a 2013 script-ruining deconstruction of reigning fighter of the year Nonito Donaire—a win that earned him the lifelong enmity of promoter Bob Arum—has been banishment from big fights and big money. As an opponent for Lomachenko, however, he has been temporarily welcomed back to the Top Rank fold.

At the business level of boxing where this bout will take place, nothing is set up randomly. This fight was set up in the hope and expectation that Rigondeaux’s will be the highest-profile head Lomachenko has yet put on a stake.

It’s the kind of revenge Arum lives for. Lacking any intuition when it comes to the boxing aspect of boxing and chronically overestimating fighters who are still unproven—he often prematurely compares them favorably to all-time greats—Arum has relied for decades on the nonpareil matchmaking skill of Bruce Trampler to keep his fantasies from becoming career killers for Top Rank’s fighters.

But Rigondeaux was carefully chosen for this fight. He will enter the ring against Lomachenko at Madison Square Garden with marked disadvantages in nearly every category. Rigondeaux is much too small, he’s too old, and he’s been too inactive to fight at this level. His style isn’t fan friendly—read this as judge and TV friendly—enough. You can’t give him rounds when he doesn’t do anything.

That’s the boxing stuff. The size and age part is true. The inactivity is probably true, too. The other things are only true to the extent that they’ve been said to be true, promulgated as the truth, and mutated into the truth as part of an ongoing narrative instigated by promoters who didn’t want the Cuban anywhere near their high-profile fighters, floated along on a river of ink from boxing writers who either don’t know anything about boxing or who look over their shoulders for marching orders, and given loudest voice by the TV commentators, who have either excluded Rigondeaux from discussion or dismissed him as a great fighter whose name is invariably invoked with an asterisk beside it—the “but” part of the equation.

There’s more pernicious boxing voodoo to deal with. As the fight draws near, both the WBO and the WBA have decided that the time is perfect to strip the undefeated Rigondeaux of his belts...

As Amy Winehouse would have put it, “What kind of ****ery is this?”

It’s fairly standard boxing ****ery, actually. On its own, isolated from everything else happening with Rigondeaux, it would likely require his prompt attention. This is something the fighter is not really in a position to give at the moment, so it’s become additional stone placed on his back. There are many tricks of the trade in boxing designed to throw off the focus of the guy the promoter is hoping will lose. Most are subtle and, if not exactly sporting, exist just inside the lines of fair play. They occasionally stray past this point, reaching their apotheosis in Russia, Germany, South Africa, and Thailand, where opponents coming in from outside have to deal with watching what they eat or drink in case they’ve been tampered with, threats from serious looking men (veiled or otherwise, including the con****uous presence of guns), and all forms of noise abuse, from knocked-on doors to unending high decibel music played outside their hotel rooms.

Rigondeaux hasn’t been persecuted to nearly the extent described above, but the message is still clear: “We’re not bringing you to New York to f--k up our business.”

[Bronx2245]

I forgot all about Tabiti you're right on that one lol

Highly skilled brother, just flying below the radar, because his promotions suck! He should've been in the WBSS last year!

[Boxing Goat]

Yeah, sounds about right. Use Floyd's method and let the most dangerous fighters either get old, lose to someone else or show signs of vulnerability first. Why not mention Gary Russell Jr? You don't want that smoke is why.

[HarvardBlue]

It's obvious Mayweather is in it for the long game. That strategy helped earn him more than a half a billion dollars. Davis' career could have stiffer competition but fighting Lomachanko doesn't do him any justice. If he wins, so what? Lomachenko has been beaten before. If he loses he'll be Gary Russell overnight.

[jonnyc420]

Porky don't fight anybody of note unless it's on Twitter.

[BigStomps]

And what tough fights have Crawford been in? Just curious...Some of his best wins are guys Prospects/Contenders are dismantling.

Cut the *****. Your agenda is annoying. There's matchmaking across the sport for a reason..

Let's be honest here. Every top promoter is to blame here. From Floyd to Haymon to Arum to Oscar to Eddie and Warren! They are all to blame for the way boxing is right now!
They call the shots when it comes to who a fighter fights!
Networks can make it harder for a fight to be made but they don't make it impossible. Promoters make a fight either possible or impossible.
And I don't wanna hear no bullshet that Haymon isn't a promoter cause we all know better!

[BigStomps]

That's straight bullshet. They are the ones MAKING fights & have schedules in place. Show us WHO is doing it better, we'll wait.

That's not the point here! The fact is that all promoters are at fault for us fans not getting the fights we want!
Including Haymon cause he's a promoter regardless of what he wants to call himself!

[BigStomps]

Exactly. Very well said all around. let's also remember Tank is complaining he should be P4P #1 not Lomachenko, but when they ask Tank in private who he wants to fight, he says he doesn't care. That's supposed to be Al Haymon and Floyd's job to mentor this kid and explain to him, if you want to be P4P #1, then you need to fight the best. But their entire business model would collapse if their fighters understood that. Their entire business model seems to be built on telling fighters they are victims and keeping them within the PBC bubble pumping them up telling them they are legends and all the criticism they get for fighting poor opposition is just because of PBC haters, not because it's true.

I do feel like more boxing fans are waking up to the bull**** though. Boxing is moving in such a positive direction lately with real fighters winning belts willing to unify and give good fair fights at the top level. The number of protected hypejobs is still significant on the PBC side, but at least now there is plenty of viable competition giving actual real top level fights to fans and not overly protecting their fighters. Hopefully the sanctioning bodies stop coddling Haymon fighters and reward the boxers willing to fight the best instead, because ultimately those are the ones who are going to deliver big fights and big sanctioning fees to the sanctioning bodies, not vice versa. Its very confusing why the WBA would want Tank to be their champ when he only fought once last year against a no name opponent and didn't generate big money for them. Maybe they're being paid under the table who knows.

But I think the best recourse is to just start ignoring boxers like Tank who are protected. Their promoters keep saying they aren't protected, the writers keep trying to justify covering Tank's career for example even though he refused to fight the best in his division Loma, but fans are wising up. Just ignore this guy, and ignore the writers articles about him or any comments or any of that ****, and just wait until he actually does something. Then, fair play to him, and everyone can pay him attention again, as would be fair to him. Im not trying to banish him to the silent treatment for eternity or anything. But if he's going to duck prime Loma like he saw his promoter do with Pacquiao, boxing has suffered enough from bull**** like that, so I highly suggest we all simply tune him out then and tell him fans aren't falling for that game anymore, and you're not going to get your shine until you fight Loma, and if you don't do it in the next 12 months or so before Loma declines, then even fighting Loma won't be enough after that point, and you will need to find another prime fighter on that level to prove yourself against and make up for ducking prime Loma, sort of the way I've been saying Canelo can only do by fighting Bivol now after how he waited for GGG to get old before fighting him. Canelo botched that opportunity, so now the only one left is possibly even more difficult, at least in terms of weight. Same could apply for Tank. There are no fighters his size coming up as good as prime Loma, so if he avoids prime Loma, how can he ever compensate for that in his career other than fighting someone nearly as Loma, but much bigger?

In any case, for now, the best option is to ignore the ducker, and his tiresome promoter.

This is the best Post you've ever posted!

On second thought's, this is the ONLY good post you've ever posted....
Congratulations though...

[Corelone]

You collect 9 mil for fighting a dwarf and now that's a business model? Crap matchup, bunch of excuses, Tank by brutal KO, or he carry's him. Floyd games are hard to watch. I remember people demanding their money back after a few of his crappy shows.